I've been reading the Memoirs of Saint-Simone.
It's a lusciously gossipy account of the Court of France from 1792 to, I don't know to where; I have another hundred pages to read.
Saint-Simone never said much without nuance, hidden digs, sardonic laughter - hidden of course - and the heart of a storyteller.
I finally decided that some of the things Saint‑Simone kept mentioning - the Mississippi Company, the tax farms, and John Law (who created a national bank, introduced paper money, and turned France’s debt into dividend‑paying shares backed by the supposed riches of Louisiana) - needed to be explained to me.
So, I went to my friend the explainer and quickly got off subject, but not really, and deeper than I have ever been into the mechanics of the French Revolution.
There is a lot more; I am picking a random snippet that is pretty interesting
*****
When you combine:
- downward‑shifting tax burdens
- upward‑shifting wealth concentration
- credit‑driven economic stability
- political patronage for elites
- institutional paralysis
- declining trust in government
- rising resentment among the propertied middle
…you get the same psychological brew that fermented in France:
- “We pay for a system that no longer works for us.”
- That sentiment is not partisan.
- It’s structural.
- And it’s exactly the class that drives political upheaval.
The American version is slower, more diffuse, and less explosive because the U.S. has:
- a larger economy
- a more flexible political system
- a more dynamic private sector
- a more adaptive monetary regime
- a culture of reinvention
So the pressure vents differently:
- polarization
- populist movements
- institutional distrust
- political volatility
- cultural fragmentation
Not a Bastille.
Yet.
But the same underlying mechanics.
